Must-see attractions in Washington

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Building Exterior; Color Image; Concepts; Consumerism; Customer; Editorial; Famous Place; Horizontal; International Landmark; Market; Outdoors; People; Photography; Pike Place Market; Seattle; Shopping; Travel locations; USA; Walking; Washington State;
June 17, 2011: a crowd of people at Seattle's Pike Place market.

    Pike Place Market

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    A cavalcade of noise, smells, personalities, banter and urban theater sprinkled liberally around a spatially challenged waterside strip, Pike Place Market…

  • The Space Needle and the Experience Music Project, Seattle, Washington.

    Museum of Pop Culture

    Belltown & Seattle Center

    The Museum of Pop Culture (formerly EMP, the "Experience Music Project") is an inspired marriage between super-modern architecture and legendary rock-and…

  • Museum of Flight

    Seattle

    Even people with absolutely no interest in aviation have been known to blink in astonishment at Seattle's Museum of Flight, which takes visitors on a…

  • West Point Lighthouse, Discovery Park, Seattle, Washington. (Photo by: Greg Vaughn /VW PICS/UIG via Getty Images)

    Discovery Park

    Ballard & Discovery Park

    Hard to beat on a sunny spring day, this former military installation has been transformed into a wild coastal park, laced with walking trails and…

  • Olympic Sculpture Park.

    Olympic Sculpture Park

    Belltown & Seattle Center

    This ingenious feat of urban planning is an offshoot of the Seattle Art Museum and it bears the same strong eye for design and curation. There are dozens…

  • UNITED STATES - 2012/01/01: USA, Washington State, Seattle Center, Chihuly Garden And Glass Exhibit. (Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)

    Chihuly Garden & Glass

    Belltown & Seattle Center

    Opened in 2012 and reinforcing Seattle’s position as a leading city of the arts, this exquisite exposition of the life and work of dynamic local sculptor…

  • Space Needle

    Space Needle

    Belltown & Seattle Center

    This streamlined, modern-before-its-time tower built for the 1962 World’s Fair has been the city’s defining symbol for more than 50 years. The needle…

  • Hiram M. Chittenden Locks on Lake Washington

    Hiram M Chittenden Locks

    Ballard & Discovery Park

    Seattle shimmers like an impressionist painting on sunny days at the Hiram M Chittenden Locks. Here, the fresh waters of Lake Washington and Lake Union…

  • USA, Washington, Seattle, Green Lake City Park

    Green Lake Park

    Seattle

    A favorite hunting ground for runners, personal trainers and artistically tattooed sunbathers, scenic Green Lake Park surrounds a small natural lake…

  • SEATTLE, WASHINGTON/USA - OCT 20, 2015: MOHAI Museum and Center for Wooden Boats glow under an orange sunset on South Lake Union During the Legacy of Seattle HipHop Exhibit; Shutterstock ID 329774729; Your name (First / Last): Alexander Howard; GL account no.: 65050; Netsuite department name: Online Editorial; Full Product or Project name including edition: Western USA neighborhood POI highlights

    Museum of History & Industry

    Queen Anne & Lake Union

    Almost everything you need to know about erstwhile Seattle is crammed into the refurbished Museum of History & Industry, the centerpiece of Lake Union…

  • Lions at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo; Shutterstock ID 112476; Your name (First / Last): Alexander Howard; GL account no.: 65050; Netsuite department name: Online Editorial; Full Product or Project name including edition: Western USA neighborhood POI highlights

    Woodland Park Zoo

    Seattle

    In Woodland Park, up the hill from Green Lake Park, the Woodland Park Zoo is one of Seattle’s most popular tourist attractions. Consistently rated as one…

  • Seattle Art Museum building

    Seattle Art Museum

    Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

    While not comparable with the big guns in New York and Chicago, Seattle Art Museum is no slouch. Always re-curating its art collection with new…

  • Seattle, Washington, United States, North America

    Fremont Public Sculptures

    Seattle

    You don't need to pay museum entrance fees to see some of the best and most iconic art in the city. Fremont is an art gallery in and of itself, with…

  • Nordic Museum

    Ballard & Discovery Park

    Reason alone to come to Ballard – if the culinary scene and waterside parks weren’t enough – is this delightful surprise of a museum dedicated to Nordic…

  • Alpine Lakes Wilderness

    Central Washington

    The Alpine Lakes Wilderness is a spectacular 614-sq-mile protected area of rough, crenellated mountains, glacier-gouged valleys, and – as the name implies…

  • Paradise

    Washington Cascades

    Home to numerous trailheads and the starting point for most summit hikes, Paradise also holds the iconic Paradise Inn (built in 1916) and the massive,…

  • Ape Cave

    Washington Cascades

    Ape Cave is a 2-mile-long lava tube formed 2000 years ago by a lava flow that followed a deep watercourse. It's the longest lava tube in the western…

  • Upper Skagit Bald Eagle Area

    North Cascades

    The Bald Eagle area is essentially the 10-mile stretch of the Skagit River between Rockport and Marblemount. After salmon spawn, their spent carcasses…

  • Mt Rainier National Park

    Washington Cascades

    The USA's fifth-highest peak outside Alaska, majestic Mt Rainier is also one of the country's most beguiling mountains. Part of a 368-sq-mile national…

  • Grand Coulee Dam

    Northeastern Washington

    The Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center details the history of the dam and surrounding area with movies, photos and interactive exhibits. Free guided tours of…

  • Lake Union

    Queen Anne & Lake Union

    Unifying Seattle’s various bodies of water, freshwater Lake Union was carved by glacial erosion 12,000 years ago. Native American Duwamish tribes once…

  • Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture

    Spokane

    In a striking state-of-the-art building in the beautiful Browne's Addition neighborhood, this museum is well worth a visit. It has one of the finest…

  • Spencer Spit State Park

    San Juan Islands

    Spencer Spit State Park is one of only four state parks on the San Juan archipelago. Two sand spits have formed a marshy lagoon that is a prime spot for…

  • Yakima Valley Museum

    Central Washington

    This highly educational and entertaining museum is one of the state's best. It tells the story of the region from a geographic and historical viewpoint,…

  • Roozengaarde Display Garden

    Northwestern Washington & the San Juan Islands

    Halfway between La Conner and Mt Vernon, this renowned bulb producer has color-drenched fields of blooms as well as a truly spectacular display garden…

  • Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center

    The CD, Madrona & Madison Park

    This Byzantium Revival building began life in 1915 as a synagogue for a congregation of Orthodox Jews. By 1969 the demographics of the neighborhood had…

  • Cherry blossoms in bloom, University of Washington campus, Seattle, WA.; Shutterstock ID 104680496; Your name (First / Last): Alexander Howard; GL account no.: 65050; Netsuite department name: Online Editorial; Full Product or Project name including edition: Western USA neighborhood POI highlights

    University of Washington

    Seattle

    Founded in 1861, Seattle's university is almost as old as the city itself and is highly ranked worldwide (the prestigious Times Higher Education magazine…

  • Upper Cascade Falls, Moran State Park, Orcas Island, Washington

    Moran State Park

    San Juan Islands

    In 1911 Robert Moran donated 7 sq miles of his property to create this park on the eastern saddlebag of Orcas Island. The park is dominated by 2409ft Mt…

  • Autumn Colors with Park Bench and Walking Path in Arboretum Garden; Shutterstock ID 227970997; Your name (First / Last): Alexander Howard; GL account no.: 65050; Netsuite department name: Online Editorial; Full Product or Project name including edition: Western USA neighborhood POI highlights

    Washington Park Arboretum

    The CD, Madrona & Madison Park

    This wild and lovely park stretching from Madison Valley up to Union Bay offers a wide variety of gardens, a wetlands nature trail and 200 acres of mature…

  • USA, Washington State, North Cascades, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Diablo Lake and Davis Peak from Diable Lake Overlook

    Diablo Lake

    North Cascades

    Just south of Ross Lake, Diablo Lake is held back by the 389ft Diablo Dam. A pullout off Hwy 20 known as the Diablo Dam Overlook provides incredible views…

  • Northwest African American Museum

    The CD, Madrona & Madison Park

    Small, concise and culturally valuable, NAAM opened in 2008 after more than 30 years of planning. It occupies the space of an old school, which, until the…

  • Palouse Falls State Park

    Southeastern Washington

    Fifty-four miles north of Walla Walla and 83 miles west of Pullman, off Hwy 261, this jaw-droppingly magnificent waterfall tumbles 198ft down a craggy,…

  • Turtleback Mountain Preserve

    San Juan Islands

    Saved from possible development when it was bought for $18.5 million as public land in 2007, Orcas' second mountain (rising to 1519ft) was in private…

  • Windy Ridge Viewpoint

    Washington Cascades

    Windy Ridge Viewpoint is a highlight of the remote eastside entrance to Mt St Helens. Here visitors get a palpable, if eerie, sense of the destruction…

  • Lime Kiln Point State Park

    San Juan Islands

    Clinging to the island's rocky west coast, this beautiful park overlooks the deep Haro Strait and is reputedly one of the best places in the world to view…

  • Ross Lake

    North Cascades

    Ross Lake stretches across 23 miles north toward the Canadian border. In keeping with the wild terrain, it's accessible only by trail or water. Part of…

  • Riverside State Park

    Spokane

    This park, 6 miles northwest of downtown Spokane, consists of 10,000 acres of protected forest and trails where you can run, walk or cycle to your heart's…

  • Waiting for the Interurban

    Seattle

    Seattle’s most popular piece of public art, Waiting for the Interurban, is cast in recycled aluminum and depicts six people waiting for a train that never…

  • North Cascades National Park

    North Cascades

    The wildest of all Pacific Northwest wildernesses, the lightly trodden, 1000-sq-mile North Cascades National Park (inaugurated in 1968) has no major…

  • Fremont Troll

    Seattle

    The Fremont Troll is an outlandish sculpture that lurks beneath the north end of the Aurora Bridge at N 36th St. The troll's creators – artists Steve…